Nothing to see here; move along, move along

/

CT to pay Miguel Cardona $250k to consult for commission he leads

Earlier this year, Gov. Ned Lamont signed an executive order creating the Connecticut Career Pathway Commission, a new advisory board tasked with helping students and workers in the state find jobs in an economy that is being shaped by artificial intelligence, automation and global competition.

In a press release, the Democratic governor announced that he was appointing dozens of education officials, business owners, labor leaders and other experts to the new commission, and he emphasized that all of those members would serve the state as “unpaid volunteers.”

But wait, what about his friends? Who’s gonna take care of them? Not to worry; Ned’s got it covered.

But documents reviewed this week by the Connecticut Mirror show that former U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, who also served as the state’s education commissioner from 2019 to early 2021 and was named by Lamont to chair the commission, will be paid up to a quarter of a million dollars as a consultant for the new commission.

The records show that Lamont’s Office of Workforce Strategy entered into a contract that will pay Cardona Solutions LLC, a consulting firm created by the former education secretary, $250,000 to “facilitate” the commission’s work, analyze the state’s current career pathways and produce a report that the commission would send to the governor and General Assembly.

For context, the contract is worth more money than Cardona earned in a year serving as Lamont’s education commissioner.

State officials confirmed on Friday that the state did not solicit bids from other consulting companies prior to drafting the contract for Cardona’s business.

Connecticut law generally requires state officials to put contracts, especially larger ones such as Cardona’s, out to bid so multiple businesses can compete for the work and the state can get the best deal for taxpayers.

But Kelli-Marie Vallieres, who leads the state Office of Workforce Strategy, said her office chose to waive those procurement rules in Cardona’s case because they were in a time crunch and because Cardona was uniquely qualified for the job.

This would seem to sum it up nicely:

House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-Branford, said the Lamont administration’s explanation that they didn’t have time to seek bids from other companies is “a cop out.”

“It’s just a way of masking the fact that this is a political patronage job,” Candelora said.

More on this and our octogenarian Post Road protesters over at Greenwich Sentinel:

A Little Fact-Checking For Indivisible Greenwich And The Greenwich Free Press

Contracts reported

/

93 Summit Road, Riverside, $2.795 million. 1931 house on the railroad side of Summit, it’s been active since June 9th, so probably not going for more than asking price. Then again, in this market ….

16 Ridgebrook Road, $4.495 million, 56 DOM. Reviewing its price history, I was interested to see that the owners tried for $3.495 million in 2010 and after failing to sell it at the price for a year, raised it to $4.490 in 2011. They gave it another year, and when that strategy also flopped, they rented it out in 2012

calhoun drive

And over 55 Calhoun Drive, the owners asked themselves “as long as we haven’t unpacked yet, why not move?” So they placed the house that they’d paid $8.2 million for in August 2025 back on the market at $8.795, and have a buyer. Why rent, when you can buy, then sell at a profit instead?

I can't say I ever cared about or later quit watching the NFL because of its cheerleaders, but this development certainly won't bring me back as a viewer

/

THEN:

1973

And now:

And, sorry, even this wouldn’t convince me to waste a Sunday afternoon:

Another bit of history may be seeing a new chapter, or perhaps has reached its conclusion

/

Historic Round Hill Landmark Changes Hands after 111 Years of Strain Family Ownership

After more than a century in the hands of the Strain family, the historic Round Hill Store/Round Hill Service Station property has changed ownership, marking a significant transition for two longtime fixtures of Greenwich’s backcountry community.

The property has been acquired by Chuck Royce and his family, residents known throughout Greenwich for their long history of supporting community-focused ventures as well as the Brumberg Family, longtime supporters of local charities who are raising their young family in the neighborhood. The new owners purchased the property in the name of the Round Hill Preservation Society. They plan to continue operating both the store and service station for the foreseeable future while considering their next chapter.

Established in 1801, the Round Hill Store has served the community for 225 years and is believed to be the oldest continuously operating retail business in Connecticut. During that time, it has had only three ownership groups. Royce and Brumberg become the fourth.

Originally located on the southwest corner of Round Hill and Old Mill roads, the store served as a stagecoach stop and, from 1830 to 1901, as the local post office. The building was later moved across the street to its present location, where it faces west.

Among the store’s historic treasures are handwritten bookkeeping journals dating to 1861, during the Civil War. The journals offer a glimpse into everyday life in 19th-century Round Hill, recording customers’ household accounts, individual purchases and the prices paid for goods.

In 1915, William Strain purchased the store, beginning 111 years of ownership and operation by four generations of the Strain family. As transportation and the needs of the community evolved, the Round Hill Service Station and an oil delivery business were added.

But here’s the fun part of its history: the downfall of the Queen of Mean, Leona Helmsley:

Over the decades, both businesses have become much more than places to pick up groceries or have a car repaired. They are informal gathering places where neighbors catch up, exchange local news and stay connected to the issues and activities in backcountry Greenwich.

“The store welcomes a cross-section of the community each day, [including] landscapers and tradespeople stopping for coffee and something from the deli” — it was those landscapers and tradesmen, aided by community gossip, who proved Leona’s ruin.

Morning after morning, month after month, the men would gather in the store and vent a steady stream of complaints about working at Leona’s place at 521 Round Hill Road, “Dunnellen Hall”. She was, they said, not only a notoriously late payer, and even then paying only a heavily discounted amount, she directed that all bills be billed and directed to the Helmsley Corporation in NYC, even though the work they performed had nothing to do with the corporation, and were entirely incurred by Mrs. Helmsley for her pleasure and personal use. The men felt put upon and cheated, and wondered why they had to pay taxes, while Helmsley did not.

“Don’t complain to me”, one of the owners finally said, tired of their constant grousing, “call up State Revenue and tell them”. Which at least one of them did, thereby initiating the criminal action that eventually saw Leona removed from Dunnellen Hall and lodged up the street in FCI Danbury, one of the many accommodations offered miscreants by our Federal Bureau of Prisons.

So far as I know, no one around here missed her.

521 Round hill Road, Dunnellen Hall

“We don’t pay taxes, only the little people pay taxes”

Barefoot in the snow, uphill, both ways

/

mama vasquez leads her brood to school

Democrat Caught LYING That His Mom Had to 'Fight to Pay Rent and Put Food on the Table

New Mexico Democrat Gabe Vasquez would like you to believe he learned grit and determination the old-fashioned way: staring at an eviction notice while Mom scraped together dinner. 

In his latest ad he practically genuflects at the altar of the working class, claiming he watched his mother “fight to pay rent and put food on the table.” 

Turns out Mom wasn’t punching a time clock in some rundown restaurant where she washed dishes. No no, she held corporate finance jobs at GE, served as a finance manager and comptroller in Mexico, then landed as a senior finance analyst in Indiana, while the family scrapbook apparently features European vacations, luxury shopping, and a Corvette photobomb. 

(More examples of Democrat barefoot contessas and contessos can be found in the accompanying Fox News report.)

Luxury travel, shopping, six-figure income: Battleground Dems ripped for 'phony' working-class narrative

Battleground Dem says her 2010 Honda is 'what we can afford' — while disclosures show a combined salary of nearly $250k and investments potentially worth up to $1.8 million